Yes, give me money, like these people
Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards."
The Stella Awards are named after 81year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.
Here are this year's winners:
5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000. by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson'sson.
5th Place (tie):
19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn'tnotice there was someone at the wheel of the car whenhe was trying to steal his neighbor's hu bcaps.
5th Place (tie):
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of thegarage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning.He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulledit shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000.
In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place!
4th Place:
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500. and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than so ught because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet
gun.
3rd Place:
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500. after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx
(tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
2ndPlace:
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
1st Place:
This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first
trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back
& make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000. plus a new motor
home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.
Your going to have to do what any business would do in your situation, hire more people. If you need to be home planning, making, creating, and all that, then you need someone to be your voice and be out there doing all the things you don't have the time for. Hopefully you hire someone that makes you more then they are worth.
A little more famous only in the eyes of the media. Look at the election results, Badnarik got only about 65k less votes then Nadar. From that you could say Nadar is more popular, but I gurantee if Nadar didn't have the 4.5 times more campaign funds and, more importantly, the extra media croverage(Badnarick probably got around.1% the coverage Nadar got,.000000001% the coverage the rep. and dem. got), he could have come a lot closer to winning. It is the combination of the media dictating who wins and stupid americans not caring to even attempt to be smart enough to figure it out for themsleves. Life is easier when you let other people make the tough decisions for you.
In March, iRobot won a $26 million U.S. Navy contract to provide an additional 213 PackBots for bomb-defusing duty, bringing the total value of Navy orders of its robots to more than $43 million.
What the hell does the Navy need with ground robots?
Am I the only one that remembers the video of a plane hitting the pentagon that was crystal clear(too clear if you ask me) being aired on the TV on 9/11. I can not be the only one that remembers this but I have yet to see anyone bring this up. Can someone please confirm that this happened so I know I'm not going insane, or more likely so I know you all are not going insane.
Exactly what I was thinking. From what I read, they don't seem to be creating a new label to produce their work under. Creating a coalition is great and all, but it need to be followed up with starting up a music company that won't force their artists to sign their music/lives away. Again, good start, but lets hope it's not a marketing ploy.
8.religious groups are starting to use lobbyists more and I'm sure you know that since Bush came to office religious organizations have been receiving government money,
and 14. yes Diebold and gerrymandering, and the fact that you need a shitload of money to run a campaign, and the fact that the way the system is set up no third party stands a chance
I'm going to need someone to back me up on this, but I thought they just discovered that the devil's number was in fact 696, not 666. Apparently there was a translation error at some point. I am almost positive about this, but I have no facts to support it. Anyone?
Many Lives, Many Masters - Brian Weiss, MD
A little out there but I really enjoyed it for some reason. Basically this Dr hypnotized someone to the point where they remembered their past lives, and everything in between.
And what did it cost? Who paid for it? Was it from your local town tax, or did everyone in America have to pay? If it is just your local town taxes paying for this system, I am not as against it. Socialism works better when a small community (less than 50k) gets together and agrees to pay for something like this. It is another thing to ask the entire country to pay for your broadband access when you choose to live in an area that can not easily receieve it in a profitable way. The internet is a priviledge, not a right. I would much prefer to pay for education, food, and housing for the poor before I give them internet.
I am also looking forward to how this government run ISP starts regulating, blocking content. They areprobably not doing anything like that right now, they can't, they have to reel you in, make you want it, make it attractive. But history shows two things, the government wants and gets more power, and government run anything is inefficent. I would really like to see a plan of how they expect to pay for installation, maintenance, upgrades, training, ect.
The 12 governmental officials on the 40-person WGIG come from Barbados, Belgium, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Japan, Luxembourg, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The rest are drawn from the private sector, academia and civil society.
Actually, I don't think we need another database full of ANY SS#'s. There are already enough out there and creating another one would also create another database waiting to be hacked into.
I think it is important to point out here that states know when you buy cigarettes from an Indian reservation and haven't paid your taxes on them(for those who have receieved those tax bills in the mail) but they don't know if your paying taxes(which you would be if you were working).
And, just for fun, lets throw in the fact that they know (or will soon) what books you read from the library, but they won't know if your scamming the system. Once again, the government's priorities are all out of whack.
Yes, in theory this works out pretty well. But since local governments also need campaign money, it is too easy for someone who has a lot of money to influence these local governments. "I don't feel like making these people a good offer on their house, so I will just have the government take it for me." And all it cost them was a few dollars.
Card carrying democrat? You don't sound like one. Try another party (yes, there are more then 2). I suggest libertarian, but choose for yourself. There is no need to support the two corrupt, entrenched powers that, as I'm sure most of you noticed by now, are really the same party.
I liked almost everything this guy had to say, and to me he didn't sound like a republican or a democrat because he actually sounded like he cared about people, not companies. He did sound too socialist though when he started talking about broadband for everyone through regulation and policies.
He cited the phone system, but the government severly messed that one up in the past, I doubt they could do a good job now. That and, I'm sorry to say, if you live in the middle of nowhere, you will have to deal with wanting to live by yourself without certain comforts us people who don't support urban sprawl get, like broadband. The last thing I want is to have to pay for a wire to run to the top of a mountain so Joe Redneck gets his porn faster. And think of this, if the government forced cable companies to wire everyone everywhere, satelite TV would not be around today. That entire technology tree would not have even been researched.
As upset as I get when I read stuff like this, eventually my head clears up and I remember that in order for a music company to hold the rights to a song, a band/musician needs to sign it over to them. Are we really going to be worse off not being able to d/l Britney Spears songs for 70-100 years? I realize that there are some bands that already made the mistake of choosing this path, but too bad for them. They got greedy and now their music will not be heard as much as, lets say, bands that allow their music to be put on http://archive.org/. I'm probably one of the few jamband fans on/., but I know the bands I listen to enjoy playing music and enjoy other listening to it. Yes they will have CD's to buy, but they will also allow you to record their live shows(better then prerecorded anyway, the test of a good band). And although I'm not sure, I think they make more money from people coming out to see them play then from CD/T-SHirt sales. So again, if you want to keep all the crap music away from the public for 100 years, I say THANK YOU.
No subsidies for anyone or anything. When governments start subsidizing, they are basically saying they have too close of ties with businesses and individuals. Cut that out and we are left with a playing field a bit more fair for everyone and also, hopefully, a government that is a little less corrupt. So although I don't fully understand what you are saying, it doesn't matter, no subsidies, period.
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Yes, give me money, like these people Time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards are named after 81year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners: 5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000. by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson'sson. 5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn'tnotice there was someone at the wheel of the car whenhe was trying to steal his neighbor's hu bcaps. 5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of thegarage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning.He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulledit shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000. In my opinion this is so outrageous that it should have been 2nd Place! 4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500. and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than so ught because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun. 3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500. after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. 2ndPlace: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses. 1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000. plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.
Your going to have to do what any business would do in your situation, hire more people. If you need to be home planning, making, creating, and all that, then you need someone to be your voice and be out there doing all the things you don't have the time for. Hopefully you hire someone that makes you more then they are worth.
you forgot Fable. Which was short, even with the addon later, but still one of my favorites.
No it's not, it's like rearranging the chairs on the Hindenberg. Thanks to Colbert for that one.
A little more famous only in the eyes of the media. Look at the election results, Badnarik got only about 65k less votes then Nadar. From that you could say Nadar is more popular, but I gurantee if Nadar didn't have the 4.5 times more campaign funds and, more importantly, the extra media croverage(Badnarick probably got around .1% the coverage Nadar got, .000000001% the coverage the rep. and dem. got), he could have come a lot closer to winning. It is the combination of the media dictating who wins and stupid americans not caring to even attempt to be smart enough to figure it out for themsleves. Life is easier when you let other people make the tough decisions for you.
What the hell does the Navy need with ground robots?
Am I the only one that remembers the video of a plane hitting the pentagon that was crystal clear(too clear if you ask me) being aired on the TV on 9/11. I can not be the only one that remembers this but I have yet to see anyone bring this up. Can someone please confirm that this happened so I know I'm not going insane, or more likely so I know you all are not going insane.
Exactly what I was thinking. From what I read, they don't seem to be creating a new label to produce their work under. Creating a coalition is great and all, but it need to be followed up with starting up a music company that won't force their artists to sign their music/lives away. Again, good start, but lets hope it's not a marketing ploy.
1.Flags are being replaced with magnetic ribbons
8.religious groups are starting to use lobbyists more and I'm sure you know that since Bush came to office religious organizations have been receiving government money,
and 14. yes Diebold and gerrymandering, and the fact that you need a shitload of money to run a campaign, and the fact that the way the system is set up no third party stands a chance
I'm going to need someone to back me up on this, but I thought they just discovered that the devil's number was in fact 696, not 666. Apparently there was a translation error at some point. I am almost positive about this, but I have no facts to support it. Anyone?
Many Lives, Many Masters - Brian Weiss, MD A little out there but I really enjoyed it for some reason. Basically this Dr hypnotized someone to the point where they remembered their past lives, and everything in between.
by his parents.
I am also looking forward to how this government run ISP starts regulating, blocking content. They areprobably not doing anything like that right now, they can't, they have to reel you in, make you want it, make it attractive. But history shows two things, the government wants and gets more power, and government run anything is inefficent. I would really like to see a plan of how they expect to pay for installation, maintenance, upgrades, training, ect.
hahahaha, almost too funny
Did I read that right? The UN wants to tax the internet?
Enjoy, but beware, will suck hours out of your life.
Well we did that already. They had an entire country, Afghanistan, and they weren't happy with that. They wanted more.
The question that needs to be answered is, Is TV a priviledge or a right?
I think it is important to point out here that states know when you buy cigarettes from an Indian reservation and haven't paid your taxes on them(for those who have receieved those tax bills in the mail) but they don't know if your paying taxes(which you would be if you were working).
And, just for fun, lets throw in the fact that they know (or will soon) what books you read from the library, but they won't know if your scamming the system. Once again, the government's priorities are all out of whack.
Yes, in theory this works out pretty well. But since local governments also need campaign money, it is too easy for someone who has a lot of money to influence these local governments. "I don't feel like making these people a good offer on their house, so I will just have the government take it for me." And all it cost them was a few dollars.
Or Sealand, if they are doing ISP stuff. I know they were entertaining the idea of being a data warehouse.
Card carrying democrat? You don't sound like one. Try another party (yes, there are more then 2). I suggest libertarian, but choose for yourself. There is no need to support the two corrupt, entrenched powers that, as I'm sure most of you noticed by now, are really the same party.
He cited the phone system, but the government severly messed that one up in the past, I doubt they could do a good job now. That and, I'm sorry to say, if you live in the middle of nowhere, you will have to deal with wanting to live by yourself without certain comforts us people who don't support urban sprawl get, like broadband. The last thing I want is to have to pay for a wire to run to the top of a mountain so Joe Redneck gets his porn faster. And think of this, if the government forced cable companies to wire everyone everywhere, satelite TV would not be around today. That entire technology tree would not have even been researched.
As upset as I get when I read stuff like this, eventually my head clears up and I remember that in order for a music company to hold the rights to a song, a band/musician needs to sign it over to them. Are we really going to be worse off not being able to d/l Britney Spears songs for 70-100 years? I realize that there are some bands that already made the mistake of choosing this path, but too bad for them. They got greedy and now their music will not be heard as much as, lets say, bands that allow their music to be put on http://archive.org/. I'm probably one of the few jamband fans on /., but I know the bands I listen to enjoy playing music and enjoy other listening to it. Yes they will have CD's to buy, but they will also allow you to record their live shows(better then prerecorded anyway, the test of a good band). And although I'm not sure, I think they make more money from people coming out to see them play then from CD/T-SHirt sales. So again, if you want to keep all the crap music away from the public for 100 years, I say THANK YOU.
No subsidies for anyone or anything. When governments start subsidizing, they are basically saying they have too close of ties with businesses and individuals. Cut that out and we are left with a playing field a bit more fair for everyone and also, hopefully, a government that is a little less corrupt. So although I don't fully understand what you are saying, it doesn't matter, no subsidies, period.